Boy and the Heron, The

image for Boy and the Heron, The

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Not suitable under 11; parental guidance to 12 (violence, scary scenes, themes, mild coarse language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Boy and the Heron, The
  • a review of Boy and the Heron, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 14 December 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 11 Not suitable due to violence, scary scenes, themes and mild coarse language.
Children aged 11–12 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes and mild coarse language.
Children aged 13 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Boy and the Heron, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild fantasy themes, animated violence, and occasional coarse language
Length: 124 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

After 12-year-old Mahito’s (voice of Luca Padovan) mother is killed in a fire in a Tokyo hospital, his father Soichi (voice of Christian Bale) remarries his mother’s younger sister Natsuko (voice of Gemma Chan), and the pair go to live at her country estate where Soichi runs the local ammunitions factory. Still grieving the loss of his mother, Mahito struggles to get used to his new life: his pregnant stepmother who is also his aunt, a house full of old maids and a mysterious grey heron (voice of Robert Pattinson) who won’t leave him alone. At one point, Mahito follows the heron who leads him to the ruins of a deserted tower in the woods near his home. With the help of Kiriko (Florence Pugh), one of the old maids, Mahito learns that the tower was built by his granduncle, who disappeared many years before. As Mahito is recovering from an injury, he sees Natsuko walking towards the tower and soon learns that she has disappeared. The heron really begins to pester Mahito, trying to lure him to the tower by saying that his mother is still alive and that he must enter the tower to save her. Mahito and Kiriko enter the tower and are led, by a little man inside the grey heron, through a floor that leads to another world. As Mahito searches this magical realm for his mother, he encounters Himi (voice of Karen Fukuhara), a young woman with magical powers; a younger version of Kiriko; gigantic, human-eating parakeets and pelicans; as well as Natsuko’s granduncle (voice of Mark Hamill) who rules the world with sorcerer-like powers. Mahito is offered a choice between returning to the world he knows and staying to rule the world he has discovered. He is also offered the chance to know his mother in a way that he could never have imagined, and he is offered the chance for a new mother. Mahito’s honesty and integrity guide his decisions, they lead to a reunion, and they, perhaps inadvertently, result in the destruction of a world.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Death of a parent: Disappearance of family members; War; Bullying; Greed and power.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • There is an air raid siren in the night and Mahito is woken suddenly to learn that his mother’s hospital is on fire.
  • Bullies grab Mahito and wrestle him to the ground. He is clearly beaten up but, on the way home, he grabs a rock and bashes it against the side of his head leaving a gaping wound. He arrives home at the point of collapse, with blood gushing down the side of his head.
  • Mahito tries to smash the heron with a stick. The heron breaks the stick into pieces instead.
  • Mahito stands, as if paralysed, while countless toads and frogs cover him, apparently at the behest of the heron. Natsuko shoots an arrow at the heron and Mahito falls backwards into the lake, as if unconscious.
  • A character says, “I will bite your heart out”.
  • Mahito shoots the heron with his arrow and a creepy, vicious-looking man is revealed to be living inside the heron.
  • There is a sign that says, ‘those who seek my knowledge shall die’.
  • A character says to, “skewer that turkey”.
  • There is a screaming flurry as thousands of pelicans ambush Mahito. Some of the birds are saying, “Let’s go eat!”, as they attack him.
  • A character comments that, “In this world, the dead are the majority”.
  • A large fish is caught and sliced all the way down its body. Mahito takes a turn to cut the fish and is soon soaked with blood as a whole pile of guts and organs bubble out of the carcass.
  • The pelicans eat baby souls at they try to fly up to the other world.
  • Himi attacks the pelicans with fire.
  • A pelican, coughing up blood, lays down and dies.
  • A bird man kicks Mahito and he falls backwards.
  • A story is told about how a rock fell out of the sky and most people were scared of it but not Mahito’s great uncle – he was entranced by it. He built a great tower around the rock but many people got killed. Even Mahito’s own mother disappeared into the tower for a year, only to return as if nothing had happened.
  • Parakeets chase Mahito and nearly cut and eat him.
  • Himi chases the parakeets away with fire, grabs Mahito’s hand and leads him through a blaze.
  • Parakeets sharpen their carving knives while Mahito is chained up.
  • Mahito kicks a giant parakeet in the face.
  • A character knocks the parakeets unconscious as they are about to eat Mahito.
  • Himi has also been captured and is shown lying unconscious.
  • Mahito smashes through a window.
  • A parakeet king destroys a bridge trying to prevent others from following him.
  • Mahito and the heron fall to the bottom of the tower staircase destroyed by the king.
  • Rocks explode and chaos abounds as a planet begins to split and a world is torn apart.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Sometimes the heron looks like a normal bird and sometimes it seems completely sinister, with creepy teeth and a gaping, evil smile. The fact that a little man lives inside the heron and can be seen when the beak is pulled back may be disturbing to some children.
  • There are other random characters, such as black, see-through men with glowing eyes and an evil parakeet king who wants total power, along with various other creatures that simply look odd, creepy or menacing. Some of these characters or their actions may be distressing to some young viewers.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Mahito has dreams and sees images of his mother on fire. In one scene, he himself is running through the blaze while he watches her burn. Sometimes he even hears her calling to him, “Save me!”
  • After Mahito enters the tower, the heron shows him his mother laying on a couch. Mahito touches her arm, begging her to wake up and she starts to melt into a black inky pool. The scene may be disturbing to some young viewers.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • The Hikari brand of cigarettes is mentioned repeatedly.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • After Mahito asks a character if she has seen a woman, the characters asks Mahito if he is sweet on the woman he is searching for.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Mahito watches his father and stepmother kiss.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Many of the old maids living in Natsuko’s house smoke and one specifically asks for cigarettes.
  • There is mention of smoking knotweed leaves as characters mention how scarce tobacco is.
  • An old man with a cigarette tucked behind his ear is smoking.
  • An old woman tries to get Mahito to give her cigarettes in exchange for a bow and arrow.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Wily, old, flim-flam man.
  • Dang it
  • Damn
  • Damn it!
  • Darn you!
  • Arrogant little turd!
  • Stupid
  • Shut up!
  • Brat.

In a nutshell

The Boy and the Heron is a Japanese, animated, fantasy film (with an English dubbed version and a Japanese version with English subtitles – this review includes the voice cast of the dubbed version). The film features a plot that twists and turns in typical anime style. Best suited to older teen and adult audiences as well as fans of Studio Ghibli.

The main messages from this movie are that time will heal all wounds; that we must live each day as it comes; that no world is perfect; and that we must make the best of where we have chosen to be.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Courage
  • Helpfulness
  • Integrity
  • Peace
  • Honesty.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Disappearing without telling anyone of your intentions or where you might be headed.
  • Bullying.
  • How the quest for ultimate power can destroy you.
  • Being led by guilt that is not for one person to carry alone, and treating others in a cold or dismissive way.